And so the end of a fab few weeks in Sydney

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And now, the end is near..... I'm devastated - literally - to be leaving Bondi and Sydney today. The overnight bus to Melbourne is not appealing in the slightest, with the only glimpse of optimism coming from the fact I still have a couple of 'knock out drop' painkillers left which will hopefully at least halve the amount of time I'm awake on the 12 hour trek on the greyhound bus.

I headed down for a quick last swim at Bondi, having been summoned by a Twitter message from one of the Bondi lifeguards themselves, no less... The sun is baking today but the wind has got up a bit, and there are some cracking waves coming in today and tomorrow. After a bit more lifeguard stalking and failing to catch up with said lifeguard (for all you Bondi Rescue fans - Reidy), Jesse and I went out for a final Sydney lunch, where I managed to spend the entire hour complaining that I had to leave today. Jesse and Heidi no doubt will be chuffed to get their apartment back to normal, in particular Jesse's office where I've been bunking down for the last few weeks. They've been the perfect hosts and their kindness was unbelievable. I managed to sneakily buy them some presents by way of a thank you, and thought I'd managed to sneak a bonus bottle of wine in the fridge for them too (however Heidi's far too good at the observation game for me, in that she rumbled the wine intruder within 10 seconds of opening the fridge door).

A couple of hours of updating my blog later, and Jess dropped me off at the bus station. Tell you what, I could've cried. In fact I very nearly did, such was the great time I've had there since Christmas evening. Horse injuries, missed car hire, failure to visit anywhere of note other than Bondi beach, inability to use up the remaining credits on my Merlin magic pass...none of it matters. What does though is those old friendships - like the ones I have with Jesse and Becs - that stand the test of time. It's a great, great thing to be able to travel to the other side of the world and to be treated to such amazing hospitality despite the fact you've not been the best at keeping in touch, what with our busy lives these days. These friendships last a lifetime and I'm spoilt with the ones I have, that's for sure.

I hope to be back to Sydney very, very soon...in the meantime, I've extended the return invitation to Jesse to come and visit Burnham-on-Sea when they're next over in the UK. What do you mean, hardly a fair swap?!

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